Left vice-president Katina Schubert reacted coolly to the announcement by Bundestag member Sahra Wagenknecht that she would no longer run for the left. “She hasn’t done politics for the left for a long time,” Schubert told the German Press Agency in Berlin. “She’s been working on her own account for a long time. Her business model is to agitate against the party, her whole book is based on it. I’ll put it this way: travelers shouldn’t be stopped.”
Wagenknecht announced on Friday evening that she was no longer running for the Bundestag for the left. On the left, she angered with party criticism in her book “The Self-Righteous” and with deviating positions on topics such as migration, Corona and the Ukraine war. With a “Manifesto for Peace” and a large demonstration in Berlin, Wagenknecht recently mobilized thousands. She has indicated that she may become part of a party re-foundation.
Schubert, who is also Berlin state chairwoman, said: “Honestly, I don’t believe in it because it’s way too much work for her after seeing how she fell on her stomach with (the movement) ‘Get up’ . But even if it is so, then so be it.”
Wagenknecht has not played a role in the “programmatic development” of the left for a long time. “But their business model is to defame and badmouth people from the sidelines,” said Schubert. “In this respect: A clarification might make some things easier.”
Wagenknecht has been a member of the Bundestag for the left since 2009 and entered parliament again in 2021 via the North Rhine-Westphalia state list. Schubert said: “I don’t think it would have been put up again in North Rhine-Westphalia.” Wagenknecht closed her office there and withdrew resources. “She has made it clear that she no longer wants anything to do with this party.”
Wagenknecht has not yet publicly committed to their plans for the future. She told the “Rheinpfalz” that she either wanted to withdraw from politics after the end of the legislative period and work as a publicist and author, “or something new will arise politically”. Regarding the possibility of founding a new party, she only told the newspaper: “It’s being discussed in many places.”
